Rascom & Horizons Prepp’d For Historic Sixth Launch For Arianespace

The Ariane 5 for Arianespace‘s record sixth flight of 2007 has been transferred to the Final Assembly Building at the Spaceport in French Guiana in preparation for its December launch. Ariane 5 GS was rolled out yesterday from the Spaceport’s Launcher Integration Building. That is where the vehicle’s basic build-up was completed under responsibility of industrial prime contractor Astrium Space Transportation. With its arrival in the Final Assembly Building, Arianespace took delivery of the vehicle, which will be fitted with its dual-satellite payload of Rascom 1 for the Regional African Satellite Communication Organization (RascomStar-QAF) and Horizons-2 for Horizon Satellite LCC.




This upcoming flight will mark the first time Arianespace has performed six Ariane 5 missions in a year. It follows the workhorse vehicle’s successful launches in March, May, August, October and November. So far in 2007, Ariane 5s have delivered 10 telecommunications satellites weighing more than 37,000 kg. into highly accurate geostationary transfer orbit. Rascom 1, built by Thales Alenia Space as part of a turnkey contract with RascomStar-QAF, is the first pan-African telecommunications satellite and will provide services in rural areas of Africa, as well as domestic and international connections, direct TV broadcast services and Internet access throughout the African continent. Horizons-2 was manufactured by U.S.-based Orbital Sciences Corporation and will meet the growing demand for telecommunications, HDTV and IP-based content distribution in North America and features both a continental U.S. beam and an East Coast beam. These beams will extend the spacecraft’s coverage to include the Caribbean and parts of Canada.